Making your own ethanol at home... possible, realistic, cost effective?
Making your own ethanol at home... possible, realistic, cost effective?
I live in Canada where E85 is virtually non-existent.
How difficult would it be to acquire a pre-fabbed still, or make one yourself to be able to produce reliable ethanol from a home garage? It doesn't seem that hard, but has anybody here actually done this and are you able to realistically produce enough ethanol to run your car month to month? It would seem the biggest risk and challenge is acquiring a license to produce ethanol legally.
Are there any fairly cheap / small stills available online that don't cost a fortune and would be sufficient for personal use...?
How difficult would it be to acquire a pre-fabbed still, or make one yourself to be able to produce reliable ethanol from a home garage? It doesn't seem that hard, but has anybody here actually done this and are you able to realistically produce enough ethanol to run your car month to month? It would seem the biggest risk and challenge is acquiring a license to produce ethanol legally.
Are there any fairly cheap / small stills available online that don't cost a fortune and would be sufficient for personal use...?
this should give you an idea. https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/e8...under-way.html
Already have, nothing from him yet, and to be fair i wouldn't knock the guy for not wanting to give me free advice.
As for stills, I've come across a few that seem promising that are priced in the $1,300 to $2,500 range and will produce about 3/4 to 1 gallon of 90-95% ethanol on a per hour basis. They are of a similar design to the still on the "Ethanol production/steam powered battery charging and misc projects finally under way" page linked above that David built.
As for stills, I've come across a few that seem promising that are priced in the $1,300 to $2,500 range and will produce about 3/4 to 1 gallon of 90-95% ethanol on a per hour basis. They are of a similar design to the still on the "Ethanol production/steam powered battery charging and misc projects finally under way" page linked above that David built.
I read through all pages on David Buschurs homestead and ethanol production thread. It seems the discussion ceased in 2012... And it seemed a common problem that was never referenced as having been solved, was successfully separating water from his yields of ethanol in order for it to be mixed with gasoline. I don't actually know if the ethanol he produced was ever properly "dried" and ever used in any vehicles.
It seems the greatest challenge is drying the distilled ethanol yield so it can properly mix (and not separate) in gasoline. Online most people recommend using zeolite which acts as a molecular sieve to draw out the water from the ethanol, but David claims this process did not work for him.
Another possibility seems to be using a filter like this one: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...ssearch=170304
Making your own ethanol is easy, but making it at a high enough purity to mix freely with pump gas to make a blend of E85 might be challenging and potentially very risky (if the contents separate, you could severely damage your engine). There are rumors (none of which seem to have been proven, though) that oil/gasoline companies create additives in their fuel to prevent additional ethanol from properly mixing; presumably to discourage the use of ethanol (which hurts their profits). Making ethanol sounds like a lot of fun and I'm confident I could do this, but if I can't dry it out and actually use it in my vehicle, there's no point.
Another possibility seems to be using a filter like this one: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...ssearch=170304
Making your own ethanol is easy, but making it at a high enough purity to mix freely with pump gas to make a blend of E85 might be challenging and potentially very risky (if the contents separate, you could severely damage your engine). There are rumors (none of which seem to have been proven, though) that oil/gasoline companies create additives in their fuel to prevent additional ethanol from properly mixing; presumably to discourage the use of ethanol (which hurts their profits). Making ethanol sounds like a lot of fun and I'm confident I could do this, but if I can't dry it out and actually use it in my vehicle, there's no point.
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I haven't tried it. I've only researched it, and my research as I've explained makes it just that - laughable. It doesn't seem nearly as easy as people would like to think.
The most practical means of doing this based on my few hours of research:
It's the last two items that could go fatally wrong and I don't really feel like spending $2,000 to see if it works or not.
The most practical means of doing this based on my few hours of research:
- ferment non-refined sugar ($0.26/lb), distiller's yeast (about $3.17 per wash) and water to create 18% alcohol
- pour wash into boiler, run through a still. buy a premium still like this http://www.milehidistilling.com/26-g...mile-hi-flute/
- will run at a rate of about 1 to 2 gallons of 90-95% ethanol per hour
- run through a basic filter to filter out bio contaminants
- run ethanol yield through a molecular sieve (zeolite) to get close to 190-proof (pulls out water)
- mix in 15% regular gasoline. use methyl in fuel to prevent moisture/water.
It's the last two items that could go fatally wrong and I don't really feel like spending $2,000 to see if it works or not.
Last edited by doncarbone; Oct 25, 2014 at 05:37 PM.
Ok so i might have figured out here how to actually mix ethanol properly with gasoline to avoid phase separation...
Any ethanol the still outputs first needs to be dried. Zeolite is cheap and can be re-used many times to draw water out of the ethanol which will drive the purity to about 190-proof.
Next, for every 5 gallons of ethanol mixed into gasoline, approximately 1 gallon of BENZENE is needed. Benzene is a carcinogen and as such virtually impossible to get your hands on unless you are a researcher at a lab, but Methylbenzene, or Toluene, which also supposedly works, is easy to get.
Methylbenzene is widely used as a solvent in paint (paint thinner basically), and could probably be acquired in bulk at a cheap price... but if you buy it from any hardware type store, you're paying $15/gallon, which adds $3.00/gallon to your ethanol price. Not exactly cheap. Now if it could be sourced much cheaper at an industrial level, it'd probably work...
I'll do some digging and see what sort of prices are achievable.
Any ethanol the still outputs first needs to be dried. Zeolite is cheap and can be re-used many times to draw water out of the ethanol which will drive the purity to about 190-proof.
Next, for every 5 gallons of ethanol mixed into gasoline, approximately 1 gallon of BENZENE is needed. Benzene is a carcinogen and as such virtually impossible to get your hands on unless you are a researcher at a lab, but Methylbenzene, or Toluene, which also supposedly works, is easy to get.
Methylbenzene is widely used as a solvent in paint (paint thinner basically), and could probably be acquired in bulk at a cheap price... but if you buy it from any hardware type store, you're paying $15/gallon, which adds $3.00/gallon to your ethanol price. Not exactly cheap. Now if it could be sourced much cheaper at an industrial level, it'd probably work...
I'll do some digging and see what sort of prices are achievable.
I contacted them and they can deliver four 55 gallon drums of fuel at a cost of CDN$1.56/litre + shipping + cost of drums. I will probably go with this option (although the idea of stilling alcohol sounds fun lol), and pick up one of these for fueling.
Flo n' Go duramax
I decided I won't do it, though, because it's apparently difficult (and subsequently expensive) to properly mix ethanol into gasoline without phase separation taking place...and running pure ethanol where i live (cold climate) will make starting the car a pain in the ***.
What parts of it made you laugh? It's actually not that hard to make -- seems crazy, but as long as you have a quality reflux column still and take the time to learn how to mix & ferment your wash (tons of recipes and products for this online), producing a high AV yield isn't some miracle of baby jesus lol. I decided I won't do it, though, because it's apparently difficult (and subsequently expensive) to properly mix ethanol into gasoline without phase separation taking place...and running pure ethanol where i live (cold climate) will make starting the car a pain in the ***.